Day 5: What is your project about?

This post is from the 30-day reflective writing series I made for Academic Writing Month (November 2018). For background on the series and links to all the videos, visit this page. To turn on subtitles: On a computer, hover at the bottom of the video window to make the row of icons appear; click on the “settings” icon (which looks like a cog), and select “Subtitles.” On a phone, the “subtitles” icon is in the bottom right corner of the screen.

DAY 5 CONTENT SUMMARY:

Our sense of what our project is “about” evolves over the course of a project, becoming gradually clearer until we have determined our main point, the claim expressed in our thesis statement that our entire manuscript supports and explains.

It can be helpful to answer the question “what is your project about?” repeatedly over the course of a project, because our evolving answers to this question help us track our progress.

The question “what is your project about?” can be answered in specific terms (i.e., what it is “about” for your scholarly community), or more abstract terms (i.e., what archetypal human experience or universal pattern is reflected or materialized in your project).

Podcast interview. Listen up in early 2019 if you like behind-the-scenes glimpses of academic entrepreneurs! I’ll be a guest on Tara McMullin’s What Works podcast. You can subscribe to my email updates to hear when the episode is released. In the interview, I share how I’m using real-time public interactions to develop ScholarShape’s ideas and methods.